We hope this newsletter
finds you well, that you have at least started planning your Christmas
knitting and that the credit crunch didn't stop you from spending
your
pennies on fabulous yarn at Ally Pally last week.

With
Christmas approaching fast the more organised among you will already
have lists of yuletide gifts to get stuck into. But if Christmas seems
just too far away for you to even think about, how about some Halloween
festive knitting first? Knitting
Pattern Centralhas
a stack of eerie patterns available for free, from eyeballs to
the more practical batty
dishcloth. Where Knitting on the
Net have gone that extra mile to bring you a
witches costume for your Barbie
doll!

In S&B London
news we're still knitting blanket squares for Operation Elderly Charity
Stitchers, so if you didn't
get your squares done during
National Knitting Week, you can still bring them along this week and
we'll send them off for you.

Sadly the deadline
for the cute Innocent Smoothie hats has now passed. But as always you
crafty bunch have come up with some wonderful little hats. You can take
a look at the Big Knit's colourful creations on their Flickr group
here.

Our last few
meetings have seen us take over a fabulous new venue, The Clarence in
Whitehall. We impressed them with a great turn out of faces old and
new, and with our marvellous appetites for knitting and for pub grub.
We're always delighted to see new people taking up knitting and it
just
proves how knitting is gradually taking over the world!

We also visited our
favourite venue EV, for National Knitting Week. As usual, we devoured
the scrumptious food. But more importantly, we did our bit for Operation Elderly Charity
Stitchers this year and
would like to thank everyone who
knitted/crocheted up some beautiful squares for the blankets. We know a
number of you haven't finished yet, so please bring along any more
squares to next week's meeting and we'll send them all off
together.

Stitch
and Ice Cream at the Interval

Details of the
next meeting:

It's back to our old
favourite, the National Theatre, where we can enjoy many glasses of
wine and will probably still be talking about our recent Ally Pally
escapades.

TUESDAY 21ST
OCTOBER
Time: From 6pmVenue: National Theatre, Long Bar (in the main
foyer),
South Bank,
London.
SE1 9PX

During National
Knitting Week we all got together and knitted up some fantastic squares
to be made into blankets for Operation Elderly Charity
Stitchers. However,
they're not the only ones that need to keep warm this winter. The
younger members of the world also need our yarn-flavoured donations.

Bliss, the
charity that helps families with
premature babies, is looking for willing knitters to help knit either
clothes for premature babies or knitted breasts to help new mothers
learn how to express breast milk.

To get you started
Bliss has provided helpful
patterns for both projects
(or you can use your own patterns). Bliss are asking anyone who
knits something for them to donate them directly to their local
neonatal hospital unit. If you don't know where your nearest
unit
is, you can find out on the Bliss website.

So get creative, S&B
Londoners! Put that leftover baby yarn to good use and we look
forward to seeing your teeny tiny creations.

Stitch and Nothing To See Here

Nothing
To See Here is a blog and
collaborative guide to some of the world's lesser-signposted places to
go. They go out of their way to bring you those strange little places
that tourist boards try very hard to keep out of the guide books.
Nothing To See Here urges you to love the places that still have a
certain charm, a bit of je-ne-sais-quoi about them; places that are a
little bit special in both senses of the word.

And of course among
the out of the ordinary attractions such as Postman's
park a London
Tank and a frankly scary Fairy
Tale garden you will of
course find a little piece of stitchery. The
knitted village sits
nestled in amongst the stalls of bric-a-brac and furniture antiques
centre in Lancaster open 364 days a year. Imagine browsing for a
present for Auntie's birthday and suddenly finding yourself in an
entirely knitted seaside town. The impressive village boasts 72
buildings, 8 shops and a train and was knitted by 3 local ladies in
over 6 years.

Such an impressive feat
is well worth a look. So if you're in Lancaster go show this unusual
attraction some love.

Stitch and Magazines Galore!

On those rare
occasions when needles and yarn aren't to hand, what's a
knitter to do?
Read about knitting of course! We love to peruse the magazines for
inspiration on yarns and patterns & and of course to read Purl
Princess's fabulous column in Knitting
Magazine.

There are an
increasing number of UK-based magazines available and one of our
current favourites is Yarn Forward
Magazine. Speaking of which, we have great
news: as
well as your LYS, you can now pick up a copy of Yarn Forward at WHSmith
or Tesco, or ask your local newsagent to get a copy for you.

And the good news just
keeps coming; instead of four issues a year, they are now publishing
ten. The only downside will be even more amazing patterns to choose
from, adding to your 'what to knit next' list.

Well
that's all we have knitted for this
edition folks. We'd like to thank you for your continued spreading
of
knitty love throughout the world; we will make the world a better
place. Keep the newbies coming!

S&B
London promise not to
share your email address with anyone, not even if they ask us nicely
and
offer us sweet, sweet cake or cashmere. S&B
London is a non- profit group and we do
all this
for no payment in our spare time, so please be patient if we make
mistakes.